Core: Merging and exiting: 2/3 of the lane and the 300-metre rule

On the merge lane your first task is to build speed, not to merge immediately: always use about 2/3 of the lane length, even if a gap is already visible earlier (Book p.148). You must give way to through traffic; some drivers shift left to give room, but that is nowhere an obligation — so do not count on it. Is the merge lane too short to build sufficient speed? Then you stop at the START of the lane, not somewhere halfway, and only pull away once you see a gap in the traffic flow approaching in your left mirror (Book p.149). Under no circumstances end up on the hard shoulder — further along it a broken-down vehicle could be standing there (Book p.150). Exiting works as a mirror image, with its own numbers: signal at about 300 metres before the start of the exit lane, using the green hectometre markers as an aid (Book p.151). Then use the WHOLE exit lane — here too: never the hard shoulder. One exception to the ordinary overtake-on-the-right rule applies specifically to the exit lane: to the right of the block marking you may overtake slow-moving drivers on the through lane on the right, provided that is needed for smooth traffic flow and you hinder or endanger no one (Book p.153).